The Ostroy Report is a fresh, aggressive voice for Democrats and a watchdog of the GOP/Tea Party. We support President Obama and the Democratic agenda and seek to preserve the Senate majority while taking back the House. But we're also not afraid to criticize the left when necessary.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

He didn't realize his business dealings with indicted Chicago real estate developer Tony Rezko constituted a conflict of interest. He didn't realize his pastor and spiritual advisor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, delivered hate-filled church speeches. Are we really to believe those assertions from Illinois' junior Senator, Barack Obama, a graduate of Harvard Law School and the first black president of its esteemed Law Review? Kinda hard for a magna cum laude Harvard law grad to play dumb, don't ya think? And is it not fair to ask the question, what else didn't Obama realize that might surface soon from his past?

Videos of Wright's speeches have surfaced in recent days in which he makes racist, anti-Semitic and anti-American statements. In one, he angrily declares that the United States brought the 9-11 attacks on itself due to its sponsorship of terrorism against Palestinians and others throughout the world. And Rezko, currently on trial in Chicago on federal corruption charges, helped the Obamas buy their home, and gave $250,000 in early campaign contributions (the Obama camp, btw, had previously understated this amount by $100,000).

To be sure, a lot of steam's been let out of the Obama campaign this past week. These two controversies have put the presidential hopeful on the hot seat, and both matters have serious legs. While Obama and his camp have desperately attempted to put them to bed, they're simply not going away.

For a candidate who's based his whole campaign on hope, change and personal integrity, these situations are causing Obama a lot of problems. Can you imagine the field day the Republicans would have against him in the general election? Can you imagine how vicious and personal their attacks would be? Think of what they'll do with Obama's admitted use of booze, pot and "blow" when he was younger. Throw in his clear lack of national and foreign policy experience and I seriously question Obama's electability. I'm not alone. A brand-new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has him and Hillary even at 45% against the GOP's presumptive nominee, Sen. John McCain. This is down from his 11-point lead over McCain just 16 days ago.

Obama's once inevitability is no more. With five months left until the Democratic convention in Denver, one or two more such controversies and Obama's ship could be sinked.

29 Comments:

For the first time in my life I watched Fox News twice today. Both times Wright and Obama were the targets. I have to say the black Obama defendent was very moving when she reminded us all that at the Bob-Jones University she, as a black, was not allowed to date a white man. I could tell how angry and hurt she was and I don't blame her. Blacks have been treated badly and suffered cruelty of all kinds. However, Obama was campaigning on healing those wounds and bringing us all together. Now we find out that he has been attending a church for twenty years that fosters hatred, resentment, anger and division. He cannot be the one to unite - not with that background.

Later tonight on Hannity and Colmes there was a panel, clips of Wright and Obama defending himself in an interview. He was not credible. That he didn't know what was going on is just not believable. It is just not possible unless he, himself, is very slow to perceive reality which is not the case.

And Hannity even said that this will not go away. They are going to keep at this, finding and playing more and more clips which are easily obtained. Any attempts to show that McCain has the same problem will fail because he does not have the close relationship with his controversial preachers as Obama has. It is over for Obama. He should step down now.

Gee I hope I am never eliminated for consideration for a job because of something my crazy preacher said when I wasn't around. People need to get a grip. And didn't one of Hillary's campaign donors go to jail? I heard that one did. I never held it against her though because the candidate cannot be expected to vett everyone who throws a check at them. Try very hard to remember that one of these candidates will win and be our candidate. Unless you want to cast your vote for McSame right now I suggest you be cool and keep this in mind before you tear them to pieces.

"Obama's once inevitability is no more." What inevitability? I think again you're confusing his campaign with the Clinton's. Remember that's what she based her campaign on for about a year?

Also, you make it seem as if the common skeletons that are coming out now on Obama are so extreme. How short a memory you have, Andy. Do you recall 1992-1993? Did Bill and Hillary Clinton have squeaky clean, ethical histories? Hardly. They were the epitomie of scandal (which would completely render his administration inept in his second term.) And there's been no wrong doing that's been shown on the Rezko front (as opposed to the actual dirt in re: Flowers, Paula Jones, Lewinsky, chinese fundraising scandals, travelgate, white water, cattle futures, pardons for sale to the uber rich, Norman Hsu, etc...), and until there is proof of actual wrong doing, Obama is not guilty by association.

Getting this out of the way now, rather than in October is for the best. But I guarantee you, that no matter how opposed you may be to the very notion, Obama will be the next Democratic nominee. At some point, when Clinton withdraws and stands on stage next to Obama to throw her support his way, you will have to pick up the banner Andy. Or will you sit out or continue to push Republican talking points?

Ostroy has sadly committed himself to spewing a vile stream of Republican invective toward the Democratic nominee. Fratricide, is it? With each successive post, I grow more uncertain of the prospects of Democratic unification.

Now, according to 12:10, we should all bend over and take the continual stream of deceit and obfuscation from Obama in order to save the royal pimp ah, prince, of darkness and his campaign of hope.

Eff that!

Obama made his choice when he continued to associate with Rezko even though, and as an attorney, he knew Rezko was under federal invstigation for corruption. Obama knowingly, after 20 years of association with Rev. Wright, that the agenda of the pastor and his church is one of divisiveness, predominately against the "white man" and the "us of kkk a". Obama made his choice to stay,

The majority of voters in america are white or hispanic. The job of POTUS is to represent ALL the people. The United States has no room for corruption and veiled bigotry. We've already had that for the last seven years. There is no room for Obama's brand of politics because it is far more dirty and offensive than any Clinton could dish out, let alone get away with.

Mr. Obama's choices are the very icons of what we are trying to move away from. He needs to leave now and take his ungrateful wife with him.

>>Ostroy has sadly committed himself to spewing a vile stream of Republican invective

If your definition of vile is telling the truth, then both you and your candidate have a very serious problem. The vileness against Obama has only barely gotten started, and it isn't coming from those of us who have tried to tell you that the right wing will have a field day with a lot of this stuff about your candidate.

They will turn him into a monster you won't even recognize. Oh, wait! You thought they could only do that to Hillary Clinton.

once again,the kool-aid drinkers are out in force,these are the people who have in this chat room called hillary and her supporters everyname in the book,and claimed she hac committed every sin in the book,with very little sticking,their massiah and YES you can now call him their Massiah(his mentor refers him to the second coming of christ)listened to hate being preached from the pulpit for 20 years,and if you listen to the tapes it's sort of like being in a mahdrasia,hate american,hate jews,and love arabs thats point 1 the second is his dealings worth rezko,how many other dealings with rezko you don't know about, and none of this is going to be swipt under the rug

I keep waiting for you to write a piece on the chinks in Hillary's candidacy. NEVER ONCE have you done that, yet there is a steady stream of anti-Obama pieces. You almost sound like a Repugnican in your attack.

How about starting with the fact that 48% of Americans say that under no circumstances would they ever vote for Hillary?

How about her passing familiarity with integrity when her own interests are at stake? There is a typical rule of thumb - when someone declines to disclose information, it normally will hurt them. So why is it that Hillary won't disclose her tax returns? Yeah, yeah, yeah - she will release them around tax time. But that makes sense for THIS year. Why did she allow 40 primaries to pass before releasing prior year returns? Perhaps because it would have sunk her ship long ago?

Ditto regarding the presidential records. And the list of donors to the library. We all know its true - the Clintons have taken dirty money from people who are less than friendly to the US and disclosure of that would have sunk her a long time ago.

And we haven't even addressed their philosophical flexibility. There is no way she would have voted for the war if she voted her true political leanings. She did it to maintain "viability within the system" (sound familiar?) when she thought she had a slam dunk to the nomination and was positioning her self for the independents and moderates.

See Andy - she figures she already has the kool-aid drinkers like you in her pocket. And she does, eh?

NO matter what you misogynists say about Hillary in defense of Obama, you will never hear her or anybody who supports her say GOD DAMN AMERICA. That is TREASON and legally punishable.

And, Wright says Hillary has never been called a n_______. Obama has never been called a bitch, a c___t, a monster or had a hateful T-shirt like " IF only Hillary had married OJ instead." or another with the letters "C._._.T." (I don't spell it out for fear it will be removed from the blog as too vulgar. That doesn't stop Hillary haters,however.)If there had been such slander Sharpton would have punished the offenders by taking their jobs. Enough IS enough.

And, I'm shocked to find out Oprah is a member of that church. Ms "sunshine and light" apparently hates whites too. This is not going to go away.

And, I'm sick of the stupid Democratic leaders who didn't vett Obama before their support like Kennedy, Kerry and the rest; and, that stupid Pelosi who this a.m. is pushing his advantage by saying the super delegates should not exericse their judgment as to who can be elected. What a set-back to women Pelosi has been as the first Speaker. She's a disaster and couldn't even muster the strength to impeach Bush.

It's been Obama and Co. that have thrown up the race card every time something didn't swing his way. With Jesse Jackson jr on his team it's no wonder. MSM and others in the journalistic field need to get off their duffs and start digging into Obama's true nature and associations. The man is an obvious liar and charlatan.

If the DNC didn't vett him well enough, then it's time to do it now. Obama has always been the divisive one in this campaign and he will be the downfall of this election.

I'm an attorney and have read the constitution and much of the pertinent case law on the subject, saying "God Damn America" is not TREASON. If you're one of the loony people who think that America has never done a single wrong, that every person on the face of the globe must declare undying fealty to America, even when our beloved United States commits a wrong (see: Iraq War), then you're one of those blind fools who will never recognize how far we have fallen in the eyes of the world (and in the eyes of many of our own people...see Rev. Wright). Everything looks good when you wear the rose-colored glasses of nationalism and imperialism that parades as patriotism.

These are legit issues for Obama, and could very well hurt him in the general....just like all of Hillary's past, inklings of future Hillary fallibilities (tax returns, the friends she keeps, sexism, anti-Hillaryism more generally, etc. etc.), as well as McCain's numerous problems (his lack of actual straight talk, ties to lobbyists, "bomb Iran," evangelical crazy advisor, etc. etc.).

And this of course leaves out anything yet to be seen from any of the three of them, and rest assured there will be more.

The main problem for Obama is whether when the dust settles his "golden boy" image tarnishing will be the lingering meme, or whether the framing comes more to a "Well, Obama's not perfect, but I like him for......"

This post is really, really OTT. Obviously these are issues for Obama, and we should question his judgment/loyalty here. However this only brings him down to earth, as I don't see these issues as being substantively worse than what dogs the other candidates. Feeding into this stuff is not ultimately very helpful in the grand scheme of things: we want a POTUS who will help get us better energy, healthcare, foreign relations, etc. etc. and who will have to help guide us out of recession. These issues, while reflecting poorly on character, have little or nothing to do with this.

40 year old, working-class, white woman here. I am distressed by how ugly the race has become. Of course, seeing as how the Clintons are involved, it's not surprising (look at the hate in this thread alone from Hillary supporters).

I have been a supporter of Barack Obama since 2004. I admire him for many, many reasons. And I judge him based upon what HE says, and HIS actions - not by the words and actions of his associates.

And, until HE does or says something that is reprehensible, I shall continue to support him with my donations and my vote.

And should the day come when I find myself unable to support him, Hillary Clinton will not get my default vote.

She does not deserve to be rewarded for the terrible campaign she has run. It's been terrible - disorganized, desperate, divisive, cheap, and tawdry.

Hillary hasn't run a good campaign Please --- Everyone who paid attention knows that during the debates after Hillary was asked the qeustion first, Obama then stole her ideas when he was asked. His ideas were first her ideas.

Wonderful writing. I prefer hope for change, to the second dynastic Presidency. That's not been working out so well for us. Hillary's experience as First Lady is about as relevant as Laura Bushes. Her experience with Health Care first time around was disastrous and set us back. She seems to have a real hard time admitting that anything she's actually done has ever been a mistake and might require an apology. Until she apologizes for not reading the intelligence reports before casting her wrong vote on the Iraq War Resolution I would have a very hard time voting for her. If she gets the nomination through some kind of wheeler dealer superduper delegate square dance. I'll be putting my house on the market and looking for a place in Canada or Costa Rica. I've had enough of lobbyists running the country.

To borrow a phrase from the Clinton campaign, "what didn't you like about the 90's, the peace or the prosperty?" I was very dismayed when Barack lumped the Clinton years with the Bush years and derided them both. But then, many of his supporters were children or teens then and were not exactly paying attention to the economy. And you know, yes health care failed the first time so because of that I believe Hillary actually has more to prove and will work even harder to assure its gets passed this time around. (If we also vote to assure she has a Democratic Congress to work with, that will help, too.) I sure wish Barack had not supported the war for two years in the Senate--it makes his anti-war touting hard to take. Where were the speeches on it past 2002 until he decided to run for President? And we have so many problems now--war, economy, environment, etc., I just think it takes a Clinton to clean up after a Bush!!

Your comments concerning Rev Wright's sermons demonstrate why Obama HAS to tread a fine line of repudiation, uhh, that is, act dumb. If an intelligent and sincere person (and so-called "liberal") such as Andy, cannot hear and appreciate the truth in Wright's comments, how are we as a nation able to deal with race and class? I have NO problems with Wright's comments, and as such (and for many other other reasons) could not run for office. I cannot blame Obama for his position.

Rob I suspect you're the Repugmole. No matter. You make an idiotic point.

Even if what Wright said were true, which it is not, or if he believes it to be true, a sound thinker and American would not condemn his own country. He would pray, as a CHristian, for whatever was necessary to improve. It's his attitude , stupid, as much as what he says. He is hate-filled and vindictive. He is not representiative of the Christian faith. Neither were the whites who had slaves and continued to hurt blacks after the Civil War. A Christian preacher of any color should be teaching Christianity in its pure form.

Andy,I read your seemingly objective "new poll shows uptick for Obama post and thought, this is a mature young man with a positive perspective on the Democratic Primary. Then I read further posts and see you aren't any different than the Obama people you choose to criticize. Really, you're just a Billary in lambs clothing.

Why is it that anyone who points out that the US has been bombing, maiming and killing innocent people all over the world for generations is automatically labelled as hating America? It's just the truth! Sept. 11 was horrible, yes, but not surprising. And no, I don't condone ANY acts of killing innocents...period. I love our country, but open your eyes and learn some history, folks. Also, it sure seems like all you Hillary supporters are more interested in your candidate winning the nomination (and then the Dems will definitely lose the election, because there are many people, both Dem and Repub, that will not vote for her), than you are about the Dems uniting and taking back the White House. Obama is not a vindictive, shrill, win-at-all-costs type, as opposed to Clinton. It sure is nice of you all to do the Repubs dirty work for them (3AM phone call ad), when we should all be more concerned with the general election, and who could actually WIN!